Comfort, woodstoves & Moms

As the autumn weather continues, our mornings are frosty and the house is chilly. Not enough to need heat all day but chilly enough to need a smudge in the wood stove. Not that I mind.....I love a fire in the kitchen cook stove. It's comforting to me and I love the smell of wood smoke. It's smells like home to me. I grew up in a home heated with wood and have always had a wood stove in my homes as an adult. I was extremely fortunate to find this little beauty hidden in a "junk" shop when we first moved to Maine. No lie, this poor stove was in the back of a building literally covered with dust and stuff. I uncovered it and checked it over as best I could and asked the man the price. "For that old thing" he replied, $175.00. My lucky day!! It took 4 men to load this on our pickup and off load it. It sat in our shop for 4 years after that because we couldn't put it in our mobile home. We set it outside and built a fire in it to make sure it didn't have cracks or any broken pieces. A few new fire brick and it was ready to go.

When we built our new home, it was basically designed our kitchen/dining room as this is where we gather the most. Steve built the beautiful tile hearth that the stove sets on. We had fireplace windows installed, one on each side of the stove. We also made sure there is room on either side of the stove for a comfy rocking chair. One for myself, and one for my Mom. The fireplace windows face south and the two big dining room windows are on the east side. This is a wonderful, sunny room.

I'm very fortunate that my Mom lives on the farm with us. During the winter, she isn't as busy as the spring and summer so she spends a fair amount of time tending the fire and occupying one of these rockers. I never have to worry about the fire going out. Usually I'm asking her not to get it too hot :) Once in awhile she will even pop a pan of her delicious biscuits or cornbread in the oven. Yum.....

Our new home has hot water baseboard heat. After spending one winter in the house, we decided that the living room was not warm enough for us without a wood stove. We are both very spoiled being able to sit next to the warmth when you want to. This past week Steve was on vacation and he installed a new hearth and wood stove in our livingroom.

This is what he started with. This is bare wall with concrete board over it to protect the wall from the heat.

This is the finished product - our beautiful new living room hearth with wood stove

The wood stove is a Vermont Castings Intrepid II. We purchased it from a friend of ours which saved us a considerable amount of money. It has a fireplace screen which you can use with doors open. Looks lovely in the evening sitting around it with all the dogs :) It's quite the little heater and the living room is quite warm in the evening. We installed ceiling fans in all the bedrooms this spring. Because of them, we didn't use any air conditioners this year at all. By reversing them, they will circulate the heat from both wood stoves and we should only need the oil to heat our hot water. A considerable savings and we are all looking for ways to save for sure.

Before I forget, I found this lovely flower blossoming in my garden. I'm not sure what it is........grows on a tall thick stem with quite a few leaves that resemble geranium leaves. Obviously a perennial as the frost hasn't bothered it. Any ideas?